OK, let’s talk about AI products, and I’m not going into the generative AI conversation.
Yes, we will be seeing more content created with AI and even now, your editing software has lots of tools to “adjust” your work.
The supersonic speed that all the development is going, I’m sure by the time next week rolls around there will either be a new offering or upgrade versions.

What I’m going to cover today are the tools that take notes.
They listen, translate and transcribe. ( just trying to post for Cyber Monday!)

*Plaud

*OpenNote from Viaim

*Soundcore Aero Fit 2

Whether you are in a meeting, a lecture, a call, you want to try to take notes.
These tools will do that for you.
I do a lot of interviews, and being able to be in the moment, not looking down for notes, or knowing I have the info recorded. Is a major plus.
Maybe you were on the phone with a client and want to make sure you have all of the necessary info.
Solids tools. Now always carry in the bag.

Plaud has had a great deal of visibility, and for good reason.

You can use magsafe to attach the Plaud Pro to your phone or just leave it on a table, please on, and it will record/translate and transcribe the conversation or meeting. 4 mics capture it all when on a table and the magsafe helps record your call and transcribe.
Then you can have the app summarize and yes, chapter and verse, create a doc that you can export.
Here is a sample from a show I was watching on TV:

“11-24 Interview: Wright Thompson on Emmett Till Historic Site Preservation

2025-11-24 21:50:14

00:00:18 Speaker 1
Tonight, one of the most consequential sites in U.S. civil rights history is now… The Emmett Till Interpretive Center said the legendary TV writer and producer Shonda Rhimes helped buy the Mississippi barn where Emmett Till was tortured and killed back in 1955. The barn has never been treated as a historic place, as hard as that is to believe. Instead, it was just privately owned. It was even used for storage at one point. The structure itself is fragile. It’s at risk of collapse. But now it’s going to be maintained. That’s because the center says it plans to open the barn to the public by the year 2030.

00:00:56 Speaker 1
That would come 75 years after Emmett Till’s lynching. And they say it will be, quote, part of a larger public memorial, a place of truth, creativity, and conscience. My source on this story is Wright Thompson, who investigated the site of Emmett Till’s lynching for his book, The Barn, The Secret History of a Murder in Mississippi. And Wright, you know, when I saw that this was happening today, I immediately said I wanted to have you on because we’ve talked about this so much with you and how so many tried to basically erase this part of me. And I think that’s a very important part of the story.

00:01:27 Speaker 1
And you described it as the most important thing to happen to the Delta in generations. How are you feeling when you found out about this tonight.”

This unit comes with 300 minutes free per month.
If you are a heavy user, you should investigate a yearly subscription with varying levels of extra minutes with unlimited being the primo package.
This needs a very specific charging cable, so if you buy, don’t lose it!

Then a new player on the scene has come on called Viaim.
They have a few different offerings, which do essentially the same thing as the Plaud with one main difference:
The Open Note can be used as earpods with a full complement of equalizer tools to make your listening to music, podcasts, games, or movies that much better. The recorder is built right into the earbuds!
As soon as you connect to your phone, download the recoding and you have the full space for the next record.

You get up to 2 hours of call recording or 1 hour of live recording per earbud. Plus you can translate almost 100 different languages even in a mixed language meeting.
As you can see, if they are just your listening earbuds, you get almost 53 hours!

As a test, I was at an event where after a movie screening, a major celebrity came out as a surprise.
I decided to check out the capabilities, and just did a tap on the earpods, heard the double tone telling me that it was in record mode.

“So we were trying to look for things that unlock him and unlock me as an actor to become somebody else.And I had a front row seat for that unlocking when you were five feet tall, looking up at everyone, he was like, holy shit, it’s a whole different world.

None of my attempts to flirt with Margaret Wally went over anything in that particular scenario.Technically, it was a real thing in the ass, of course.But like the actor who played Oscar, who’s notoriously a tall guy, was probably, Ethan’s around six feet tall, like I was like 5’9.

But he was perfect for Oscar. So we would have him up on some boxes, and Ethan kind of lowered, and everybody trying not to fall in.But if you didn’t capture, I mean, it was said that Larry Hart didn’t even think he was capable of seducing his own shadow, which was beautiful and heartbreaking.

That was the big leap for Ethan to be able to get that.Let’s be honest.No, never.Never has anyone ever wanted to do in that one.I’ve been hawking on Coke Closet with Elizabeth is seven minutes in heaven.

It’s not Larry Hart and the kind of beseeching.But you know, the thing is, all that’s funny, but the truth is, from the get-go, this is a screenplay that I spent, whatever, 40 years of acting.

On one hand, I can count the amount of screenplays that, you know, knocked me back so much as like, I have to do this.The quality of the writing, learning the lines was fun because I would sit there and giggle and be moved.

Every turn of phrase is fascinating.It’s so well built the way it really does function the whole movie.And we came to this pretty early in the process.Years ago, when we first started reading that loud, the whole movie needs to feel like a 90 minute righteous and heart song.

It’s got a it’s got a float, and it’s got to have a bridge, it’s got a dissonance and resolve, and have that same wit, and the same soulfulness that  they carried.And if we could do that, then we felt like we could sustain the audience’s attention with the spirit.”

Later I went to the Viaim app, and here it all was! Text, and summarized. True there were some misspellings on thngs like names, but overall usable notes.
Now, the ability to export as a chaptered summary is not there yet but coming.

The above was opened in PAGES app

The Viaim comes with 600 minutes a month included.
USB-C charging for the case.

I will admit that there is a school of thought that states if you write it down it stays with you better. I have been leaning more into the exports!

Then we have the Soundcore Aero Fit 2.

These are not designed to record audio to translate or summarize. They are earbuds designed to translate, communicate, and listen to your music. The open ear design limits wearing fatigue, and it seems to be a strong trend
And this will translate up to 100 different languages.
Open the app, listen to another language, it translates into your language, speak your native language back and you will get a translation in audio through the phone speaker and in script. A conversation!

Basically if you are traveling to another country with it’s own language, or even in a multicultural city, you want this this to help communicate.
I honestly went to a local Mexican favorite restaurant to pick up some lunch and they always have Mexican TV on with the app open and the ear pods on, I was hearing the real time translation!

The Soundcore is not about taking notes and saving the conversation. You don’t need any subscription.
If you are traveling, this is a solid buy. The sales this month are excellent!

By the way, if you are using any/all of the AI generative products, just be gentle.
Learn how they work, just be ready for incredibly fast advances!
And the cost every time you change the prompt.

Plus the AI engine was trained basically on existing content. Copyright issues abound.